Learn about early railroads on the Palouse at a presentation by Philip F. Beach, author of Wheat Country Railroad: The Northern Pacific’s Spokane & Palouse and Competitors.

Racing for regional economic supremacy, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co., Union Pacific, and Northern Pacific Railroad laid rail, invested capital, speculated, and built a remarkable infrastructure—competition that played a critical role in agricultural and population growth on the Palouse. Wheat Country Railroad offers the most comprehensive and detailed study ever compiled on their intense regional rivalry.

“[This]is a fine-grained account of how all the railroads in the Palouse were planned, funded and constructed. The business dealings, alliance and divorces are Byzantine in their complexity and the author follows every thread.”—Aaron Isaacs, Heritage Rail Alliance editor